thecapitol | blah blah void blah blah spiders blah blah science [open]

Entry tags:

blah blah void blah blah spiders blah blah science [open]

Who| Carlos and anyone
What| Since Carlos's survival hinges on his ability to act like he doesn't care, he's going about his business as usual. Even though he and Cecil had a very short-lived but very public romantic relationship, he's acting like he doesn't care. Come make his life harder. Come ask him how he feels.
Where| The D10 rooms, a coffeeshop, and the Speakeasy
When| After Penny and Cruentus's classy, classy announcement.
Warnings/Notes Possible mention of torture, drinking in the last prompt. Also, the first two prompts will involve Carlos denying any real feelings for Cecil. If you want an honest discussion with him, it'll have to be in the Speakeasy.

PROMPT A: D10 common room

Carlos had known what to expect. Penny had announced that Cecil would be avoxed, after all. He had known this was coming.

That had not made keeping a straight face during the broadcast any easier.

He turned off his communicator and knew that if he was going to make this act convincing, he couldn't hide up in his room all day. Carlos hated this act. It was like he had told one lie in the Arena and hadn't been able to stop lying since. It disgusted him. However, he knew that at this point, he had no choice.

There was no need to fake the irritation on Carlos's face as he walked out into the D10 common area and sat down in one of the chairs. He pulled out a notebook and began to scribble in it. Was he writing or drawing? It would be hard to tell...

PROMPT B: TRIBUTE CENTER COMMONS: GENERIC CAPITOL COFFEESHOP

Here Carlos was, sitting in the very place Dave had brought his last words to Cecil, drinking something too hot for the midsummer weather and talking into his tape recorder. If you get close enough, you might hear snatches of what he was saying:

"--correct about my impending death--"

"--new tactic--"

"--willingly cooperate--"

This part of the Tribute center was open to the public: anyone might pass by and see him.

PROMPT C: THE SPEAKEASY

Carlos wasn't one to drink out of sadness. Not usually. He had been in and out of the Speakeasy these past few weeks, having important discussions about the rebellion.

This time, though, he was after some self-administered emotional numbing.

"I don't even know what's in this," he muttered to himself, staring at the half-empty glass in front of him, which was a mass of swirling colors.

PROMPT D: ELEVATORS

Being two floors from the top meant that Carlos stood a solid chance of sharing an elevator on the way two and from the D10 rooms. He was used to it, and usually, didn't mind it. Today, however, it was all but a guarantee that whoever he ended up in the elevator with would be awkward as hell, and Carlos was really tired of dealing with it. He shifted from foot to foot in his lab coat, trying not to sigh when the elevator stopped and the doors opened.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He knew he didn't have to tell her to be careful, so he just nodded.

"Was there anything else you wanted to ask me?" Carlos asked. "I mean, we are in the only building without cameras for miles."

Mindy closed her eyes, thinking a moment.

"Yeah, I think I do. What's the best way to know if something is going down that needs help. Assuming, you know, I survive that long or whatever."

Preferably still alive.

That was a tough one. He thought for a moment.

"I'd say...make sure that everyone on our side knows you want to help," said Carlos. "The Initiate, Joan, Shepard, Sabriel -- that way, if any of us are in trouble, we know that we can call you."

"Some of them have probably guessed," she said, smiling a little. "I don't know Sabriel or Joan too well, but I trained a little with Shepard and Initiate's heard me ramble on. They know how I feel, they just never seen me work yet. If you could let them know there, it'd help."

"I'll make sure they know. Oh, and one more thing." He leaned in a little closer, lowering his voice. "Did you see what Starkiller did?"

"Thanks."

She smiled a little. "I could guess, yeah. They didn't like that too much, did they?"

"No, they didn't," said Carlos firmly. "Partly because it caused technical difficulties, but mostly because it told us something valuable. If there is a strong enough electrical charge, the Arena can be temporarily shut down." He pulled a breath. "I don't know what they'll do in the next round to compensate for that, but it's hard to make a system that runs on electricity completely shock-proof."

"The next time something like that goes down," Mindy said quietly, "we should coordinate it. It won't happen the same way, but if we can figure it out, it'll be the start of a link of events that can be touched off. The trouble is really going to be knowing what they plan to do next. But if we can grab that window, imagine what we could do."

Carlos nodded. "We would have to have an escape plan," he argued. "You saw what happened to Starkiller. If we're going to take advantage of this, we can't get caught."

"No, definitely not. The next time we do something like that, gotta have things planned down to the letter, and even THEN we still ought to have a Plan B so we can adjust what we have to do. We got lucky before: I don't think they'll let us off so easy this time."

A firm nod.

"But, and I'd like to make it clear that I'm speaking hypothetically here," he said, "what if we escaped from the Arena under the conditions that allow people with powers to use them? Do you think that people with superhuman abilities would be able to use those abilities outside of the Arena?"

"That would depend on knowing how they don't have their powers in the first place. I'm not sure if there's a dampening field or what, but I'm guessing if there is there has to be some kind of main hub where all the powers are concentrated to begin with. If we can find that, its all a matter of creating a diversion and coordinating an effort to punch through their security, right?"

"I'm sorry, I wish I knew more about how it worked," said Carlos with an apologetic sigh. "I can't verify this information, so do take it with a grain of salt, but the rumor is that there are nanomachines in our blood. If it's true, then these tiny robots must be how the Capitol makes superpowers unusable. However, we still don't know nearly enough about how they're controlled to guess what would happen under these circumstances with any kind of accuracy."

"I wouldn't expect you to know it all anyway," Mindy replied. "No one would unless they were close enough to the heads of the Capitols their allegiance would have to be air tight. But if that shit's true, that means we have to find a way to short them out somehow, without hurting ourselves. That'll probably be up to someone who can figure out how these nano machines work best of all."

"I would test them myself," he replied, "but I don't want to risk getting the Capitol's attention. I'd need a lab, and the only place without cameras is this bar." Carlos gestured around them. "It's not exactly a good place to do delicate science."

"You're right," Mindy said. "So maybe, to start, we need to find a secret place where you COULD do all the shit you just mention. A secret hiding place, a backroom or whatever. Somewhere here in the Capitol where we'll be undetected. Any ideas?"

Carlos thought.

"No, not off the top of my head," he said. "But I'll ask Lonestar if he has any ideas. He has a better map of the Capitol and its blind spots than I do."

"Blind spots," Mindy repeated. "Maybe that's what we need. To find some more places like that."

Now that this was in her head...she might actually have something to DO.

Having purpose was good. There was nothing more frustrating than having a problem in front of you that you didn't know how to solve.

"Just be careful that they don't realize what you're doing," Carlos cautioned, though he knew it was probably unnecessary. "If you find anywhere that I can use as a lab...let me know."

"I'll definitely let you know," she said, giving him a thumbs up. "I'm not looking to be pulled on their shit list after the last time. They're not exactly feeling merciful the last few days, are they?"

"No, they aren't," he agreed, wholeheartedly.

"Thank you for coming to talk to me, Mindy. It's nice to have an honest conversation once in a while. I don't get to do it much lately."

At that, Mindy offered him a smile. "Likewise. I hate censoring myself with what I'm thinking, and this place is wearing down on me with everything its got. Good to have someone who feels it too to talk to."

A firm nod. "If it helps," Carlos offered, "all of this, all this secrecy and lies -- it won't go on forever, Mindy. I mean, of course it won't -- it is scientific fact that nothing lasts forever and everything we know is ephemeral and impermanent," he added, "but I think that our general, current situation is going to change soon." He thought. He hoped.

Mindy couldn't help cracking a little bit of a smile at Carlos's retraction. He was a good guy, handsome even, if you were looking at that. It sucked he had gotten dragged into all of this bullshit kicking and screaming, but no one really asked for this shit.

"Yeah, I think so too. Whether it'll be better or worse is yet to be seen though."

"I'm not even remotely qualified to say," Carlos sighed.

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